Is this destiny?

~ Pacific Ocean, Private island ~

Jeff wanted to give an advance warning to JoAnna about one more almost-certain trouble that they will face: "In my line of work, I created enemies, and with my dad announcing that I will take over his role in White foundation, some of the grudges directed at him will move to me. It\'s unavoidable that some of those people will be at our wedding. If I think that any of them might be a threat to you, I will let you know…"

"Honey, that is a long introduction." JoAnna interrupted him. "Can you go to the point?"

Jeff gave a small nod before continuing: "My uncle, Marcus. He is my father\'s older brother, and my grandfather picked my dad to take over his position. You can imagine that my uncle is not happy about it. Uncle has two kids, Lukas and Samara. Two of them might cause some headache as well…"

"Don\'t stress about it." JoAnna interrupted him again. "Few more drops in the ocean will not make it any bigger."

She is almost-happy that he didn\'t start introduction of another Lindsay Cox like character. JoAnna knows about Jeff having enemies, they already faced some. She can think of that Enrique or Lindsay\'s father, Timothy right away. Few more or less people with grudges won\'t make a big difference. And they don\'t have an idea when those people will strike or what their plans are. She does not want to worry about them, they will deal with them as they come.

"What do you mean?" Jeff was confused that JoAnna does not want to listen. He is trying to warn her about enemies!

"You can stress about things that might come or look forward to the things that will come. Don\'t forget that for our wedding, Sarah is preparing a dozen of drones, and if any of the guests tries anything, we will know about it. Worst case, I will paralyze everyone… and we can apologize later."

Jeff laughed. "If anyone else talked so casually about paralyzing 500 wedding guests, I would think of it as a joke or an empty threat. But knowing it came from you… I need to say that I believe you. It seems that those few days with my mom… changed you."

JoAnna gave him a sly smile. She remembered how Elanor took a scalpel and wanted to show her some torturing techniques, but then JoAnna ended up connecting that with her skills from years of medical practice in surgery and she impressed her future mother-in-law.

Jeff saw that JoAnna will not talk about what she did with Elanor and noticed that she will not eat more. "Let\'s go to bed. It\'s late, and I want us to rest so that we can maximize our awake time tomorrow."

"Maximize awake time? I hope you let me sleep late! … Don\'t you dare wake me up early!" JoAnna smiled at the thought of a relaxing day with Jeff. Just the two of them.

"It\'s your birthday, so if you want to sleep in, then sleep in it is."

In the master bedroom…

JoAnna got under the cover next to Jeff. "You know… I look forward to finding out what resources we will get from your parents. I hope that we can use them to keep our loved ones safe." 

"Always thinking about your sisters." Jeff saw JoAnna shoot him a side glance and quickly added: "I mean that in a good way."

"Of course, I\'m thinking about my sisters. Before you came into my life, Sophia and Sarah took care of me. I\'m very excited that I will be in the position to return the favor!"

"You are in a position to take care of everyone. Didn\'t you say that you can knock out the whole wedding party?" Jeff kissed tip of her nose. "I don\'t know anyone else who can say that and mean it."

JoAnna likes his comment, and she kissed tip of his nose. "Thank you, honey. Your encouragement means the world to me."

She thought for a second before continuing: "I\'m not so concerned about Sophia. She is with Felix, and both of them are using their head and think in advance before making any move. However, Sarah and Aiden are hot headed and reckless. Overconfident. And I\'m concerned that they will self-destruct."

"Oscar advised me to divide some of the power between Aiden and myself. When we get back from our honeymoon, I will find out the details and after that I can talk to Aiden."

"Does Aiden want to be part of that?" JoAnna knows that Aiden is like Sarah, not interested in anything that would tie him to a place.

"I will find out when I talk to him. But having some responsibility might force him to be less hot headed. It\'s one thing when you are by yourself, and it\'s different when people rely on you. Two of them are youngest out of siblings, so they are used that others will take care of them." Jeff\'s mind inevitably went toward Eastern European families and he had a troubled expression.

"I never saw you this concerned… is everything OK with you? You are used to handle stress, right?"

"Yes, but this is different." Jeff admitted.

"Hmm… I know you have a lot on your mind. If you are worried about the wedding, we can just elope. Let\'s go to Vegas and then jump straight to the honeymoon!" JoAnna grinned.

Jeff is grateful that she is trying to cheer him up by talking about crazy things… and it\'s working, and he decided to indulge her. "If we elope, both of our mothers will hunt us, find us and punish us like we are five-year-olds."

Both Jeff and JoAnna laughed. Yup, they can imagine Elanor and Stella gearing up and hunting them down… and then punishing them.

Jeff remembered that JoAnna said she wants to come to this island for honeymoon. "While on the topic of the honeymoon. Are you sure it\'s OK with cutting it down to two weeks?"

"Oscar will still work at White corp. as CEO substitute for four weeks. Right?" JoAnna saw Jeff nod and continued: "Then it\'s great. We can be around and available and not work. I think the plan for the honeymoon will be great: first week we will be here, and I want us to visit that other island where Aiden took Sarah. She praised that place so much that we need to go there at least two-three days. Second week we can travel: Dubai, Paris, Tokyo, two days each, and one day skiing in Alps. How I see it, one week is just for us, second week we see the world and then another two weeks we take it easy. And no one said that we can\'t do honeymoony things during those two weeks."

Jeff approved this plan, but he found that she is violating her own words. "You said last two weeks no work. Didn\'t you arrange for a surgery for that man who can\'t walk? And you will continue work on the TV show…"

"Hey, hey… those are odd things. It\'s not nine to five job." JoAnna defended herself. "And we can spend few days in Austin, Texas. I really want to see the White Mansion. Can we?"

Jeff smiled. "Why are you asking me? By then, you will officially be Mrs. White, and you can do whatever you want. If anyone gives you trouble, come and talk to Mr. White and I will show them where they made a mistake."

"Wow! Before I met you, I never knew that power can be so sexy…"

JoAnna\'s voice trailed off as Jeff\'s hands went up her chemise, and he started caressing her gently.

"What happened with maximize awake time tomorrow?" JoAnna playfully asked.

"There is no better way of maximizing awake time than not to sleep at all…" Jeff said before his lips landed on hers.